Week of 4 Advent, Sunday

"Purify our conscience, Lord, by your daily visitation"

The Collect for this Fourth Sunday of Advent invites us into a life that is open before God.

John writes in the Gospel for this morning that "this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).

Living in the light does not always come easily. It is hard to act in such a way that we are never embarrassed or ashamed, never feel the need to hide our actions. Living in the light means exposing ourselves to judgment, not only from those around us, but from "our Father, who sees in secret."

The Collect for today invites us to dare to trust that if we live in the light, Christ's daily presence in our lives will purify us, stripping from us the shame and lifting from us "the weight of sin which clings so closely."

"God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world," John assures us, "but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:17).

Dare to trust in that assurance. Lord Jesus, quickly come!